£4.4BN COSTLY ERROR — European Space Agency Galileo Sat Nav System Launch

Arianespace, the company responsible for the launch, said the satellites had been placed 'on a lower orbit than expected'. The satellites, Doresa and Milena, were fired into space on Russian-made Soyuz rocket from French Guiana yesterday, pictured left and right. It is part of a £4.4bn project, funded by the European Union, to provide Europe with an alternative in case of signal failure on US global positioning system. Space officials are investigating whether the inaccurate deployment will complicate their efforts to build the new Galileo satellite navigation system.

Two satellites being used in a £4.4bn European project to develop a satellite navigation system which rivals the American GPS network have gone into the wrong orbit. 

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